Anyone can learn how to create interesting and beautiful graphics. Join us for The Accidental Designer: How to Design Images Like a Pro, a three-week course that will teach you the theories and techniques behind designs that communicate, illustrate, and inspire.

The Accidental Designer: How to Design Images Like a Pro

Tuesdays, March 28 - April 11 | 12 - 1 PM CDT

NAM Discount: $95 | Standard Price: $120

Nonprofit Association of the Midlands is pleased to partner with Idealware to present this online course. Registration is directly with IdealWare. Use the code NAM2017 at registration to access your NAM member price.

We all know this intuitively—websites or flyers that are balanced, colorful, and visually interesting get more attention. But if you work at a small nonprofit, chances are you don’t have much money to spend on a graphic designer.

Fortunately, anyone can learn graphic design. Whether you’re already creating visuals for your nonprofit’s communications or are interested in taking this on and know nothing about it, we can help you gain the knowledge and skills you need to wow your followers with interesting and attractive designs.

Join us for a three-week course that will walk you through the fundamentals of design and show you how to get started with the right tools.

During this course you’ll:

Learn about theories of line, shape, form, and space

Explore the theories behind why colors affect the way we think and feel

Discover the sneaky importance of typography

Review layout dos and don’ts

Learn a few basic tricks for using Adobe InDesign.

Find out about low-cost alternatives to InDesign.

Course Schedule

All sessions take place Tuesdays at 2:00 pm Central and last for 60 minutes.

March 28: The Elements of Design

We’ll begin by delving into the ideas behind good design. We’ll explore how designers use lines, shapes, form, and space as the basic tools for showing depth, movement, or other visual ideas. We’ll also spend time talking about the importance of color and how to use it to achieve the right effect. And we’ll lay out how typography can affect both what the viewer sees and feels within a design.

April 4: Layout in Action

We’ll start out by talking through some basic principles of graphic layout. Then we’ll take it a step further and show you in real time a design being created—explaining the thinking and decisions being made during the process.

April 11: Technology Tools

Adobe InDesign is the industry standard and is recommended for anyone creating designs that need to live on beyond the immediate moment. That’s why it’s important that we show you a few useful tricks for doing basic design work in InDesign. However, there are a number of alternatives that offer similar functionality and many simpler tools that are free and easy to use. We’ll spend some time reviewing those tools and discussing their strengths and weaknesses.

Please register with the email address where you would like to receive the access code and dial-in information for the online seminar. All registered participants are granted access to the recordings of each session. Participants who cannot attend any of the sessions due to scheduling conflicts will still have access to the course presentation decks and handouts.

About Idealware

Idealware, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, provides thoroughly researched, impartial and accessible resources about technology to help nonprofits make smart technology decisions.